Delta-97
by Thick Soup
Summary: "You can blot out the Sun using stones. It just takes a very strong will, or a very large stone." Heavily inspired by the MTFs of the SCP Universe.


_Written for the Hogwarts Challenge group's Assignment 4 (Mythology), Task 7 (Write about someone giving their all in a fight)._

_Disclaimers: I don't know_

_Warnings: Dark-ish themes, I guess. The meaning of dark gets kind of blurred once you read enough, but there's no real kiddish stuff here._

_General theme inspired by the SCP Foundation, specifically all the recovery logs with MTFs operating. Dramatic moments probably derived from general theme of long speeches in TV shows._

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Delta-9

_Fifty archives of related to "Delta-9" found._

_Please select archive via number as found on the secondary projection._

51.

_ERROR: archive number not found._

Red is power, white is true, something about sulfur and rue.

_Code recognised._

_State credentials._

Delta-9/7-8

s33n955h35433s

_WARNING: You are attempting to use an outdated credential code. The original possessor of the code has been listed as Missing, Dead, Retired or Unable To Continue Duty._

_Attempting to continue beyond this point with your current code will result in the activation of a squad on your location._

_You are expected to have identification prepared upon the squad's arrival at your location._

_Continue?_

Yes

_Credentials accepted._

_Squad deployed._

_Welcome, Delta-9/7-8._

_Opening archive listed 51._

...

**Incident Report TPKD9/7** **(Full Clearance)**

Involved: Unspeakable Squad Delta-9/7, Thaumaturgical Creation (Codename Arbitrator, B7S8M9, M=Wiz), village of Eshu-Sahal

Casualties: Unspeakable Squad Delta-9/7, Creation "Arbitrator", village of Eshu-Sahal

Below is the transcript of the recording of the incident from Delta-9/7-8's recorder.

_[Begin Log]_

_07 50, 05.06.12_

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Alright, everyone has their masks on?_

_**Delta-9/7-2: **Yup._

_**Delta-9/7-3: **Uh-huh._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **Feels weird._

_**Delta-9/7-5: **Yeah, it's a bit more snug than usual._

_**Delta-9/7-6: **They just installed the new recorder things, remember? The ones based off muggle technology?_

_**Delta-9/7-5: **Oh, right._

_**Del****ta-9/7-7: **Mask's on._

_**Delta-9/7-8: **Affirmative._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Good. Let's review the mission plan one more time. We'll apparate in, find the spook, and take it down. Simple. Everyone got that?_

_**Delta-9/7-4: **It really feels like they're sending us to die._

_**Delta-9/7-5: **Don't say that, Four._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **It really does feel like it, yeah? I mean, the previous two squads that tried to stop it got killed in minutes, and they were combat squads. We're not._

_**Delta-9/7-2: **We have something they didn't._

_Delta-9/7-4 snorts._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **What, the "payload"? As if one person could take down something like that. No offence, Eight._

_**Delta-9/7-8: **None taken._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **In my opinion, there's almost no chance someone from the other squads didn't try a last ditch attempt to take the thing down. _

_**Delta-9/7-5: **__Almost no chance doesn't mean no chance. Maybe they were just caught off guard?_

_**Delta-9/7-4: **One of the squads was __Theta-9/2__, Five. _Theta-9/2. _The one squad good enough to still be within its first five illiterations.__Carriage rumbles._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Time. Deploy in seven._

_Six seconds pass._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Go.__Silence for three seconds._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Call off._

_**Delta-9/7-2: **Dash two, ideal arrival._

_**Delta-9/7-3: **Dash three, ideal arrival._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **Four, IA._

_**Delta-9/7-5: **Five, off by around five meters, don't seem to have alerted target._

_**Delta-9/7-6: **Dash six, all green._

_**Delta-9/7-7: **Seven, unidentified location. Four and Five in sight._

_**Delta-9/7-8: **Eight, correct destination._

_Pause. _

_**Delta-9/7-8: **However, I appear to be stuck in a bush.__Snickers are heard._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Quiet. Seven, status?_

_**Delta-9/7-7: **Readings say there's a Anti-Apparation Ward over my original location. Operation can be carried out unchanged._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Affirmative. Eight?_

_**Delta-9/7-8: **I'm out of the bush. No signs of target being alerted. Operation can be carried out unchanged._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Affirmative. Move out at oh-eight-oh-five._ _Conduct equipment check in the meantime. Those of you who are displaced, stay where you are. Continue to follow stipulated actions. _

_About four minutes pass._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Time. Move out._

_Silence for around ten minutes, interspersed with the sound of walking on rough terrain and dry grass._

_**Delta-9/7-2: **Movement._

_**Delta-9/7-3: **Two, can you confirm?_

_**Delta-9/7-2: **Movement. Object is upright, moving at a walking pace, and about 8 degrees sun-wise._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Take up spots for recon._

_**Delta-9/7-2: **Understood._

_Silence._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Two, approaching your location._

_**Delta-9/7-2: **Affirm... One, fall back. I've been spotted._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Need backup?_

_**Delta-9/7-2: **Probably. The entity seems to be followed by a massive amount of people._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **People?_

_**Delta-9/7-2: **Townsfolk, it looks like. All shambling in one way or another, swaying from side to side, bumping into each other._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **Like stereotypical zombies then._

_**Delta-9/7-2: **Much like Inferi, yes._

_**Delta-9/7-7: **Four, Five and Seven reporting in at sideline positions of Two's spot. Target does not seem to have spotted us._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Prepare for engagement, but do not until I give the signal._

_**Delta-9/7-5: **Spotted._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **Same._

_**Delta-9/7-7: **Also spotted, but they seem to be ignoring us._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Hold. Two, witchsight._

_**Delta-9/7-2: **Activated. Entity in front is black-blue, army of townsfolk behind are black-pink._

_**Delta-9/7-3: **Magic types necromancy, offensive, bewitchment, in order of appearance._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **All units near target, scatter, now._

_**Delta-9/7-2: **No time. Raising shields. _**Protengo.**

_Distant rumbling is heard._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Two is down, I repeat, Two is down. All units scatter. All units scatter._

_**Delta-9/7-6**: Hurk. (?)_

_**Delta-9/7-8: **Six has been downed._

_**Delta-9/7-3: **SHIT!_

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Three? Three, report._

_Silence._

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Three, report._

_Silence_

_**Delta-9/7-1: **Three is to be presumed KIA. Any entity resembling downed units are to be taken down with extreme prejudice._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **Merlin save us all. Falling back to Eight. Rendezvous at?_

_**Delta-9/7-5: **[Sounds of silent buzzing]_

_**Delta-9/7-1: **[Sounds of silent buzzing]_

_**Delta-9/7-4: **Hello?_

_Silence._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **Shit. Eight, you still with me? _

_**Delta-9/7-8: **...yeah. Just saw Seven go down to the townsfolk._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **...screw this. As highest ranking officer still in duty, I give orders to retreat._

_Vibrating is heard._

_**Delta-9/7-8: **I just felt full wards go up._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **Friendly?_

_**Delta-9/7-8: **Containment type._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **Damnit. Alright then, do you see any clear paths out of the wards?_

_**Delta-9/7-8: **No._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **Shit. I'm going to try bunker-busting._

_**Delta-9/7-8: **It won't work. I feel supplimental power sources supporting the wards._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **I thought Arbitrator worked alone._

_**Delta-9/7-8: **...it does._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **...it got the others, didn't it._

_**Delta-9/7-8: **Look just like they did five minutes ago. I think they classified Arbitrator a tad bit wrongly._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **We can't leave?_

_**Delta-9/7-8: **Not with the might of six professionally trained Unspeakbles backing up the wards, and the horde of ensnared blocking the way._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **...rescend previous orders. Carry out the mission to completion._

_**Delta-9/7-8: **Understood. _

_**Delta-9/7-4: **You still got the payload?_

_**Delta-9/7-8: **Yeah. Need to get really close to use it._

_**Delta-9/7-4: **...I think I have something._

_Recording ends._

_[End log]_

The recording was determined to have ended due to retroactive feedback of temporal-based magicks.

Current hypothesis of continued situation states that Delta-9/7-4 sacrificed his life to give Delta-9/7-8 to create a closed localised time loop with the relic "Kronos' Scythe", therefore trapping himself and the entity in a constant state of frozen and repeating time, starting from a set point determined by Delta-9/7-8, and looping when Delta-9/7-8 uses the relic.

Delta-9/7-8 is to be presumed effectively KIA, with all benefits of which entails, along with the rest of squad Delta-9/7.

_End of archive 51._

Edit.

_Opening archive for editing._

_Archived opened._

Start new paragraph.

_Started new paragraph._

Hello, Arbitrator.

I know you can see this.

And I want you to know what you've done.

They had names, you know. My squadmates. Those people you had your thralls kill with their own life energy.

Nobody outside of Delta-9/7 knew their names, not even the Head Unspeakable. An Unspeakable's name was only to be given to their teams, and no one else.

Emily had a seven year old daughter. She thinks she's an orphan.

Reiss had dreamt of travelling the world once he retired. I like to think that he's a part of the world now.

Jafhar wanted to help as many people as possible. The impact she had on the lives of others are like the foundation of a building; unseen, but the reason why they're still standing.

Tevah wanted to become the best storyteller in his community. He thought being an Unspeakable would give him material. But dead men tell no tales.

Mae wanted to be a good healer, a healer who did her job for free. She was always the idealistic one.

Dave just wanted to live.

You might think you're clever for escaping the time loop.

But I've escaped with you.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

And the Universe has no terror like me.

I've sworn before to never rest until I've hunted you down.

It's been thirteen hundred years.

And I've finally found the way to kill you.

The funny thing is, you could have prevented all of this.

You could have struck me down, where I stood, all those lifetimes ago, before the time I first started the loop.

You used to have the habit of letting a survivor go to spread your reputation.

That really came back to bite you in the ass, eh?

Goodbye, Arbitrator.

Today, there shall be no survivors.

[End]

_Archive edit successfully saved_

The cycle has ended. Never again.

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**Fin.**

_So, what was that all about? _

Basically, there was this one person that gave their all to take down this singular threat codenamed the Arbitrator, because it killed the closest people they had.

And that's around it.

~Thick Soup


End file.
